Bonus Episode - Canadian Prime Minister Talks about Rotary

An episode of Dogs Are Smarter Than People via Anchor

Welcome to Dogs are Smarter Than People with NYT and internationally bestselling quirky human author Carrie Jones, her slightly more normal husband, Shaun, and their dogs. Life tips. Writing tips. Dog noises. It's all here.

A quick web search for the words 'flirting' and 'dangerous' gets a lot of hits.
To be fair, so does a quick web search for the words 'flirting' and 'fun.'
But we're not here to tell you about the perils and delights of flirting. We're here to talk about writing, life, and dogs. Actually, flirting is part of most people's lives. But we're FOCUSING on the writing aspect.
Flirting is showing someone that you are attracted to them.Hall, Carter, Cody, and Albright, (2010).
If you've listened to the random thought portion of the podcast, it's obvious that Carrie fails at flirting and in knowing when other people are flirting with her.
Side note from Carrie: This is because it's really extremely rare for me to be attracted to people in that way.
So, when it comes to writing about flirting, she has to do a lot of research about how people flirt, how people react to flirting, what the common aspects of flirting are.
All of us, as writers and humans, have blind spots or flaws. These places can be viewed as writing weaknesses or human weaknesses, but they honestly just make us real.
Second side note from Carrie: Not being attracted to people that way isn't a flaw, it's just something that's different than what our society considers the 'norm.'
When we're writing, we have to look for those places where we're not as strong. It could be setting. It could be showing our character's emotions. It could be plot. It could be making a character realistically flirt. It could be making dialogue real. The secret to becoming a better writer is to dive into those places where you're not as strong, and focus on them.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Be courageous. Go right to where your weaknesses are and excavate them. If you can't write a fight scene. Go write fight scenes. Read them. Watch them. Go into the places where your weaknesses are.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Flirting is not the same as being friendly. It's about intent.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?

There's a BuzzFeed article about 23 Dogs Who are Too Adorably Stupid for Their Own Good.
Which is amazing.
But it made us think about why dogs get to be stupid and called adorable, but when humans are stupid, we're called stupid and it's derisive, you know?
There's this constant pressure to be perfect, intelligent. You misspell too as two and 180 Twitter people are on your case. We all put so much pressure on each other to be free of mistakes, perfect princesses and princes.
But dogs? They fall in the pool? They're adorable.
Dogs? They sit on a kid's face and it's amazing and funny.
Dogs? They sometimes think stuffed animals are real and we're all, "Aw.... adorable!"
We're so kind to dogs for their mistakes, but it's more than that. We love and celebrate their mistakes. Their mistakes become viral sensations of cuteness. But when it's our own selves?
We get mad. We judge ourselves. We are not quick to forgive. We expect to be perfect and when we aren't? It's like the end of the world.
It doesn't have to be like that. We can own our own stupid, love our goofs, our mess-ups, not judge ourselves and just live and grow and create.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
This is especially true for writers. We are all about having perfect stories and sentences in our first drafts, but that's not going to happen. We have to take breaths and forgive ourselves for using the word "KNEW" 89 times in a 300-word picture book.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
We're adorable. We're sometimes stupid. Be like us.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Writing News
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?

Carrie got really confused this week because she went on YouTube and looked up "Writing Advice" and there was a really popular vlogger who gives a ton of writing advice, but she's not published things.
She is, however, really definite on her views on how to be a good writer, which is lovely. It's lovely to be so confident.
But it made us think about what the worst writing advice ever is.
It's not:
Write every day.
It's not even:
Write what you know.
It's not:
Write for you and if you like it, that's all that matters.
It's not any of those one-size fits all tidbits.
Here's what it is:
Don't write. It's a waste of time.
I don't care who is giving you this advice. It might be your mom, teacher, bff, your life-partner, kid, an evil bastard who lives next door, a published writer. Or worse, it could be your own inner-critic, which lurks like a demon of self doubt in your frontal lobe.
That advice? It's crap. It's jealousy or stupidity or self-doubt. If you want to write? Write.
Don't believe me that everyone deals with this? Or almost everyone? Here is a quote from the man, himself.
The problems of success can be harder because nobody warns you about them.
The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now, they will discover you. It’s Impostor Syndrome—something my wife Amanda christened the Fraud Police.
In my case, I was convinced that there would be a knock on the door, and a man with a clipboard (I don’t know why he carried a clipboard, in my head, but he did) would be there to tell me it was all over, and they had caught up with me, and now I would have to go and get a real job, one that didn’t consist of making things up and writing them down, and reading books I wanted to read. And then I would go away quietly and get the kind of job where you don’t get to make things up anymore.
—Neil Gaiman, Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts Class of 2012
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Author Matthew Kessel has some pretty cool adviceabout what he does when he's overwhelmed by self doubt.
He writes through the doubt.
He reminds himself of all the good things he's done as a writer.
Incorporates that doubt into more emotionally resonate characters.
Talks through it with other writer people who know how it is.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Dude. Be who you are. Embrace it. Don't question it. Go with the flow, man. Don't let others label you or diminish you, but most importantly YOU don't diminish you.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.

So, one of the big debates in the world of writing advice is the Write Every Day Debate.
I know! I know. Sexy name. High stakes.
But, honestly, it gets people so riled up. There are the Write Every Day Camp. They carry lit Twitter Torches and follow Stephen King who famously said:
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
And then there are the Anti Burn Out Crew who say that you can't possibly write every day because your fingertips will fall off.
People have Twitter wars about this.
But to be fair, people also create character sheets and become hyper-focused on knowing their character's favorite color and think that's more important than what it is that the character wants with all her heart, or what the character is terrified of happening.
WRITING Hint:
Your character's motivations, her wants, the thing she's longing for and living to get? That's more important than her love of teal.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
There is no one way to be a writer. If you can write every day, write every day. If you can't, don't, but make sure you still actually write. You can't really be a writer if you only talk about writing and don't actually do it.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Nobody cares what Lassie's favorite color might have been. They cared that he wanted to save his family. Don't stress the meaningless details. Not in your story and especially not in your life. Focus on what matters.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Writing News
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I’m reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more. Come hang out with me! Get cool things!
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.

I (Carrie) apologize for sounding so sick in this podcast. It's because I am super sick.
This week I got an Instagram message from a man selling his copyediting services and there were five incredibly obvious typos in his pitch. I'm talking about two words combined, misspelled words. Double punctuation at the end of a sentence.
It was sad.
So, there's another guy on the internet who makes a ton of money helping other people be writers and I'm sure he's lovely, but I find him incredibly frustrating.
Why?
He has a page all about writing advice and in that advice he has bullet points to make things simple because apparently people who want to be writers need things simple? Who knows.
BUT IN THOSE TEN BULLET POINTS HE HAS CONTRADICTORY ADVICE. IN ONE BULLET POINT HE SAYS,
Don't be lazy. Don't sound stupid.
IN ANOTHER HE SAYS,
Don't worry about being good. Just write.
Hm.
IN YET ANOTHER HE SAYS,
Don't be a perfectionist.
Yeah.
Look. I'm sure he's helped a ton of people and his bullet points must have deeper meaning and insight, but here's the thing. Writing isn't about bullet points. Writing is about soul and depth. Writing is about communication and building worlds through words that create image and resonance.
HOW TO SURVIVE STUPID WRITING ADVICE
1. SORT THE GOOD FROM THE BAD
Remember a lot of people are just trying to make money off you. Sad, but true. And some of these people are amazing and professionals and some aren't. You have to sort the good from the bad.
2. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Does your brain work exactly like your BFF's? Your mom's? You're dog's? No. It doesn't. All advice doesn't work for everyone. It's okay to be the writer who works in spurts, who doesn't outline, who writes every day. There's no one right way to write anymore than there is one right way to human.
3. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
When you get really crap advice at your writing critique group, or workshop or from your mentor or even your agent? And it just feels wrong?
That probably means it is. Don't let group think or even an expert sway you from the truth of your story.
4. TRY NOT TO COMPARE
Here's the thing. If one writer publishes 100,00 copies? That doesn't make them a better writer than the one who publishes 10. There's a lot of stuff called marketing that goes on behind the scenes that makes one author have high sales. If one author always gets invited to conferences and you don't? It doesn't mean you suck. It might be that other author is good at schmoozing. Be proud of who you are and be who you are. Don't try to emulate the people who you think are successful. Emulate yourself.
5. BLOW IT OFF AND DIG DEEP
Seriously. Blow off the comparisons, the advice that doesn't work. Study the craft, the books YOU love, notice sentence structure, discover why you like the stories you like and then think about why YOU want to write your story, dig deep into why it matters to you.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
If you're going to pay people to help you, please do it with someone reputable. Please do it with someone who can spell. And please do it with someone who gives you consistent advice that resonates.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Some people suck and just want to use you for money or cute Instagram pictures. Avoid those people.

The city of Jackson, Mississippi is having a weird situation.
To be fair, Jackson has had weird situations before. People left Christmas trees in potholes. They decorate road signs in ways road signs aren't supposed to be decorated.
But now what's happening in Jackson is about something sacred.
It's about the mashed potato.
People are leaving bowls of mashed potatoes in all sorts of random places.
According to a Huffington Post piece, a resident is quoted as saying, “So we don’t know if someone is just playing a prank or if someone just had a lot of leftovers."
Nobody knows what it's about. That's sort of creepy. Also, it's a great base for a story. The best stories come from unexpected details and places. The best stories involve mysteries to be solved and motivation to solve them.
Writing Tip of the Cast
Don't be afraid to take something beautiful like a potato and turn it into something creepy and evil. Keto certainly wasn't afraid to do that.
Dog tip for Life
Always sniff things before you eat them.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS - READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It's scary and one of Publisher's Weekly's Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There's an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they've deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn't every story?

Science isn’t always right.
I know! Shocker.
Once, some scientists had this theory about the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. They truly believed that the lamb grew on a tree.
To be fair, it was the Middle Ages in Europe and things were kind of like America right now. People had no clue about stuff, but they pretended to.
Anyway, according to Ripley’s Believe it Or Not,
There were believed to be two distinct varieties of Vegetable Lamb: a bizarre plant that produced tiny lambs inside pods, and an equally-bizarre hybrid creature that consisted of a whole, full-sized lamb, which lived suspended from the ground by a small stem!
Chris Littlechild, Ripley’s Believe it Or Not
People believed this for centuries, right? Centuries.
What does this have to do with writing? When we write, we bring our pasts, our systems of belief and it ends up on our pages. Our work reflects our society and it reflects our own morality and beliefs. To be a good writer, we have to know what our truths are but also be willing to be challenged about them.
Writing is a communication, a social contract between the writer and the reader. We’re asking our readers to share our story, but also more subconsciously, to hear about our world views and thoughts. We’re inviting them in.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
It’s good for us to look at our own beliefs and morality occasionally. What do we believe in? Why do we think that’s right or true? How is that showing up in our stories?
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Dogs truths are simple. Love is good. Food is good. Sleep is good. Squirrels are evil. Don’t be afraid to gel your beliefs down into simplicity.
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I’m reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more. Come hang out with me! Get cool things!
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?

So this dog caught a ball in his mouth and the video of it became viral. His name is Stanley the Collie and he has his own Instagram account. Of course he does.
But then an Australian newsman interviewed Stanley and Stanley promptly took the microphone cover and ran off with it. Of course he did.
Stanley wasn’t media savvy. Or was he? Either way. He wasn’t going to change his essential Stanley-ness for fame. Writers shouldn’t either. Popularity comes and goes and it’s a hard guess whether what your doing is going to make you famous or popular. But the thing is you have to write your story – your essential truths – anyways. No matter what. Or else you’re selling out.
If you get famous, still be real. Okay? Never lose the essential you.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Sometimes your book does well and you suddenly have people crying when they meet you. Don’t blow off your old friends, mentors and colleagues because that fame? You didn’t get there alone. Support the people who supported you. Don’t trade them in for shiny new friends.
And that’s true the other way, too. Don’t be a passive aggressive jerk because one of your friends is doing well. If every time you see them post or hear them comment about good things makes you cringe? Maybe you need to reassess. It’s cool to support each other, not try to tear each other down.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Don’t change who you are just because you’re famous. Eat all the things. Fall down. Love everybody as much as you love yourself.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I’m reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more. Come hang out with me! Get cool things!
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

So, last month Carrie was on an airplane, where she was trapped on a Philadelphia runway for awhile. Okay, hours. And someone kept expelling gas out the rectum.
In Shaun language that means fart.
Anyways, they were all trapped there, smelling this smell, and it was bad. Not bad enough for them to cancel the flight, which has allegedly happened in the past, but it was bad.
It was a giant multi-person dutch oven.
We're not talking about the nice kind of dutch ovens from Le Creuset where you make phenomenal meals. We're talking about the kind where you're in bed with someone and you make a bad smell and then yank up the covers and trap your loved one in there so they must smell the smell and they can't escape.
What does this have to do with writing?
Dutch ovens are all about being trapped in a situation you'd rather not be in, right? That tension and need to escape is a big part of writing, especially writing thrillers.
Writing Tension Tip #1
Writers need tension in their story, but you don't want to kill your reader with that tension. Your tension has a goal and a purpose. It's not just thrown in there for no reason. It's like when you're in a fight. You don't throw a punch without a purpose. You want to knock someone down.
Tension is like that.
But if you let it all loose at once (think bad gas) and then trap someone in there with it? They're going to want to escape. If there's no point in the tension except for tension then the reader is going to be overwhelmed and try to escape.
Writing Tension Tip #2
However, your hero? You want to trap them. You want that hero to be stuck in the dutch oven and trying to get out. Trapping your hero makes the reader sympathize with the hero.
Trap your hero. Put her in an impossible situation. Make him work to get out of it. Have them trapped emotionally and physically and need desperately to escape. All the tension must be around that.
Writing Tip of the Pod
Trap your hero but not your readers.
Dog Tip for Life
It's best to expel gas silently and blame the humans.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I'll be reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more.
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.

When Carrie first started writing, she wrote contemporary teen fiction and she heard a lot of comments about being quirky.
She’d hear comments like “Could that really happen?”
And a lot of times, she’d answer, “Um. It already has.”
One time, I had a story with a wedding expo that featured cannabis. Everyone said, “You need to cut that. That would never happen.” Last week in Canada? It did. It was called the Canadian Canabis Wedding Expo.
In this world, things you don’t expect to happen tend to happen. And in your stories, it’s good to do that, too. Don’t be afraid to be bizarre. Don’t be afraid to have your character be the clerk in Petco who is there when a Watusi walks in. On a leash of course.
When you’re afraid to be weird, bizarre, or even just afraid to be yourself your writing suffers and becomes bland and boring. Take chances. Stand out. Be different.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Take chances. Stand your ground. Write weird. Life is weird. It’s okay to reflect that because when you do? You and your story stand out.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Weird is not an insult. Weird means you’re not boring, that you’re unexpected. Weird is good. Also, weird can make you go viral.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I’m reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more. Come hang out with me! Get cool things!
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.

In our random thought we talk about a Twitter thread by writer John Paul Brammer (@jpbrammer), which details how a cat and two dogs showed up at his apartment door and how they wanted inside. He couldn't figure out what the animals were doing there and what to do with them.
His tiny story had everything - confusion, an objective (to keep the animals safe), a mystery (where did the animals belong) and a conclusion when the owners came back home.
There was risk involved - a massive amount of risk to the animals and a smaller amount of risk to Mr. Brammer who obviously isn't a pro about dogs.
But, he pushed back his confusion and put himself out there to help the animals and keep them safe. He took a risk by opening the door to the dogs and cat. Twitter heralded him for it.
A good story involves risk - risk to the character - risk to the things she or he loves.
In life, sometimes those risks work out well. And honestly, sometimes they don't. But if you want to grow, you sometimes have to take those risks, reach beyond the ordinary and go after your dreams.
Writing Tip of the Pod
The act of writing, of communicating your thoughts is a risk in itself. Take it one step more and be risky in your story, your dialogue, your ideas.
I think all writers should have one t-shirt that says Take The Risk. I’ve heard people say writing has changed their lives forever. I believe that. It changed mine in ways I couldn’t possibly imagine. Because the moment I let risk in, the world became a very easy place to navigate.
Susan Tupper, The Review Review.
Dog Tip For Life
Humans tend not to be risk takers, but dogs? Dogs come from wolves, but according to studies, wolves are totally into taking risks, while dogs are a bit more hesitant. That's because dogs depend on their friends to help them out. Friends help alleviate the need for risks. Call on your friends when you need support and help. And be a friend when others need you.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
For more tips that go with this episode or others, check out www.carriejonesbooks.blog!
And please like and subscribe!

Lots of us have bad people in our writing and our lives. These antagonists run the gamut from people who make us scream at their Facebook posts of Fakeness to actually physically hurting us and our community.
But one of the biggest questions a lot of new writers have is this:
DO I NEED A BAD GUY?
Yes.
But your bad guy can be yourself? Like in our random thoughts, Carrie is often showing that she is her own worst enemy. Watching tv gives her anxiety, but she almost always watches tv at night for a couple of hours.
When it comes to life or writing stories, this can help you figure out what the antagonist is.
HERE ARE THE STEPS:
Figure out what your goal or your main character’s goal is.
The bad person is whatever stands in the way of your character (or you) achieving your goal.
So, in life Carrie is her own antagonist because her goal is to not feel anxious at night, yet she still watches television for an hour or two. That’s an example of an inner-antagonist or bad guy.
Also in life, when Carrie doesn’t let Shaun watch American Pickers and makes him watch Pen15? She’s Shaun’s external bad guy, keeping him from his goal to chill with those picker guys.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Every story needs conflict. Sometimes th”at conflict and opposing force (what’s keeping your character from their goal) comes from the character themself.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
“Dude. Us dogs do not need antagonists. We go for our wants. Over and over again,” says Sparty.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say ‘hi,’ and we’ll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the link to the mobile app.
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I'm reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more.
For more tips and about my upcoming books, please check out www.carriejonesbooks.blog
Thanks!

When you're in a business or nonprofit or just in your house, you'll often notice that emotions are kind of like the flu. They can be easy to catch.
When your friend is angry because someone is being a punk on Facebook, you often get angry, too. When your kid is sad, you can get sad. Emotions from others often seep into us, especially in a workplace.
Let's say everyone is super excited at a writing conference. Are you going to get super excited, too? Probably.
It's all about mirror neurons, emotional intelligence, and biomimicry.
Put simply, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and control our own emotions and the emotions of other people.
Matt Hunckler for Forbes
Part of emotional intelligence is understanding that we often adopt or mimic the expressions, behavior and emotion of those we spend a great deal of time with.
Those bonds can help us or hurt us.
Research from University of Oklahoma and University of Texas at Austin shows that when individuals dislike the same people or find a common dislike of something in general, all of a sudden those individuals have a bond that easily turns into a friendship because it’s a connection.
What’s the life lesson in this? Take a minute and reflect, asking yourself:
What types of emotion do I give off and how does that affect others I interact with such as my family, roommates, team mates, colleagues, etc.?
How easily do I let others effect my emotions? Do I even know it is happening? Check out the Emotional Contagion Scale to see how vulnerable you are.
Are the people in my social networks the type of people I really want to surround myself with?
Are there actions or changes I need to make?
Jodi Schulz for Michigan State University
When it comes to writing, figure out how you can use the contagion of emotion to shift your main character's (or other's) world view and actions. Our characters are not static things and just like real people, they should be impacted (and impact) those around them.
WRITING TiP OF THE POD:
When you write, remember that relationships and characters are about connections and those around them impact their growth and emotions.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
If emotions are contagious, pick your pack wisely. Don't hang around with the growling jerks. Hang around with the dogs who wag their tails and keep you happy.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Bar Harbor Maine - Next to our house, actually
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS - READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It's scary and one of Publi

This week we're pretty low-key chill with an off-format podcast about the weird things about us
Basically, we answer some of our listener's questions.
We forgot the hardest one, which is:
How does Carrie get everything done?
That one took too much time, so we'll share it next week.
We love you all and thank you so much for your awesome questions.
Why do you choose to live this way, humans?
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS - READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It's scary and one of Publisher's Weekly's Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There's an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they've deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn't every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I'm going to launch my Patreon site where I'll be reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more.
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a q

To be a writer and a human you often have to be courageous. Writers put their books out there for other people to see. Humans put their selves out there (sometimes in places like Tinder) for people to see.
And that's scary AF, honestly.
With us writer people we're putting our inner thoughts on a page, we're exposing our insides and that can be so hard and when we do that? It hurts when we get rejected or judged or told that our insides suck?
And sometimes when we want to protect ourselves from that hurt we develop writers block.
Spoiler alert: Writers block is bad for writers because we don't write.
But the thing is that writers aren't the only ones who get writers block, right? People get it, too. People get so afraid of doing the wrong thing, of being judged, of being publicly humiliated that we forget to live. We hunker down and have a shell of a life instead of trying something new.
Carrie: For me, the things that I get afraid about are my voice and being filmed. That's because I was bullied for my voice when I was little and because I'm kind of a dork when I get filmed and I think I'm too ugly.
Cough.
Real moment right there.
We really want to do video, but Carrie's pretty phobic about it because it feels like a place to be humiliated, for all that bullying as a child to bubble back to the surface and even though she's an adult now? It feels so vulnerable and raw.
Humiliation is traumatic and often hushed up, whereas embarrassment, given enough time, can be sublimed into a humorous anecdote. More fundamentally, humiliation involves abasement of pride and dignity, and with it loss of status and standing. The Latin root of ‘humiliation’ is ‘humus’, which translates as ‘earth’ or ‘dirt’. We all make certain status claims, however modest they may be, for instance, ‘I am a competent teacher’, ‘I am a good mother’, or ‘I am a beloved spouse’. When we are merely embarrassed, our status claims are not undermined—or if they are, they are easily recovered. But when we are humiliated, our status claims cannot so easily be recovered because, in this case, our very authority to make status claims has been called into question.
Neel Bierton, MD for Psychology Today
I think the point is to think about the worst thing that can happen from being humiliated. Lose your job? Your reputation? That sucks, but if you're still alive? That's what matters because if you can continue on, you can rise back up, right?
So here's what you do:
Deal with the humiliation. Manage it. Do the right thing, not just the defensive thing.
Do better.
Work harder.
And go out and be brave again. Or just be brave the first time.
Writing Tip of the Pod
Fear holds you back, but it can propel your characters forward. Humiliation of a character raises the stakes and also moves the plot, but it gives the readers something to relate to and someone to cheer for. Don't humiliate people in real life, but go for it in your books.
Dog Tip for Life
Dogs move on.
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS - READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It's scary and one of

What is A troll?
A troll is someone who is a poop. No! No. Sorry, let’s try to be a bit more academic here.
WHY DO THEY TROLL?
All trolls are different and everything is a generalization but usually because they are bored and want some attention.
Don’t Feed Them
It’s incredibly hard not to feed the trolls, especially if they’re attacking your friends or fans. But even if you aren’t a massively well published author with a fan base of 5 million trillion (cough) you can still attract the attention of people who want negative attention. Don’t give it to them.
The more you feed the troll, the louder and lively and bigger they get. It’s like Pinocchio’s nose growing every time he lied. Every time you respond to a troll, they get bigger and stronger.
Have Rules To Deal With Trolls
Carrie has procedures where she almost always ignores trolls. She blocks or bans them from her feeds if they are spouting hatred or doing a lot of hate language. If she knows them in person or if she’s interacted with them before in a positive way, she gives them a warning. If they react with hate or continue, she blocks or bans them. She has banned other published authors before. She has banned people that she’s given gifts to.
It’s hard, but because she has set rules, she can look back to those and deal with less inner emotion.
It’s so hard, but don’t give it to them and escalate the situation. Ignoring their rants usually shuts them down.
Be Cool Inside With Who You Are and What You DO
When the attacks are personal it can be so hard, but the thing is that you need to try to find a way to feel okay with yourself no matter what other people think.
There are always going to be people who love what you do and people who hate what you do and people who are totally oblivious and one of the big life lessons is that you have to ignore those haters.
Writing Tip of the Pod
Look, when you write, you have to have villains and trolls, characters or situations for your protagonist to bounce off and overcome. Sadly, life can be like this, too.
Be as sure of yourself as you are of your main character. Have confidence as you write, in who you are as you write and live. Make the choices you can be proud of and give the middle finger to the trolls because they can’t touch you.
Dog Tip for Life
Dogs avoid the trolls. They sniff them out, growl at them if they pose an immediate threat and move on. And if they don’t move on? They give it their all to destroy the threat.
Chose wisely in how you destroy the threat.
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an

Someone just told me (Carrie) that we weren't really having a wedding anniversary because:
We are celebrating it a few days late.
We both forgot about it until the Thursday before the Sunday of the anniversary.
Apparently, we didn't talk about it on Facebook.
Gasp! Who knew those were the criteria to keep your anniversary legit?
Here's our bonus podcast about it.
Spoiler Alert: This is not a poignant bonus podcast.
For more info on us and/or Carrie's books, check out her blog at carriejonesbooks.blog!
And please like and subscribe!

There's a 65-year-old man, Henry, who lives near Philadelphia who has depression. He didn't want to take medicine but he noticed he was happier when he was near his alligator, Wally.
Yes, a guy in Philadelphia has an alligator named Wally. If you can get past that, you can be okay with the rest of this. The doctor agreed to register Wally as an emotional support animal and the man now walks Wally around the neighborhood, hopefully not during winter and stuff.
He hugs. He likes to eat a lot of chicken wings but doesn't eat cats or goldfish. So basically, he is Shaun, who is also from Florida, but currently is a mammal, still.
This week, we've been thinking a lot about the the lenses with which we view things and how they help us process stuff, not necessarily alligators as service animals, but our lives and times that might not be awesome.
Those three lenses are:
The long lens
The reverse lens
The wide lens
So, let's say I just got yelled at by my boss or Shaun. When I look back at our discussion, which was (Cough) heated I can use these lenses to have a better understanding of what happened and also to figure out how to move forward.
When I use the reverse lens, I look at everything my boss or Shaun said from their point of view. I think about why they said what they said, what their wants, motivation and backstory is. Why did they say those things? What were they feeling?
That sometimes can give you compassion about it.
When I use the long lens, I think about those annoying things they said and ask myself, "Am I still going to be annoyed about this in six months? Two months? Two hours?" Is this really important?
I often think, "Is someone going to jail or dying because of this?" Then I tell myself to chill.
The point is to decrease the intensity of those negative feelings that are overwhelming you right after the conversation.
This brings us to the wide lens. The wide lens still focuses on you, but it puts the incident into the bigger context of your life. Yeah, your boss sucked, but EVERYONE in your life (hopefully) doesn't suck. Look at how much bigger your life is than just this experience. How many other person were cool with you today, this week? Maybe your boss isjust a schmuck. That's on them. Not you.
When bad things happen, we often make that one bad event (no matter how small) into this massive chapter in our life's story, falling into the trap of self-doubt and low self worth, but the thing is? Most of the time that one bad event is just someone else being a buttface. It doesn't deserve to be a chapter in your story. It shouldn't become the myth of your life. Every event has multiple interpretations that can be seen through so many lenses.
Interpretations are subjective so pick the interpretation you want for the incidents in your life. Pick them apart and choose the same way we do when we build stories for the characters in our novel.
Writing Tip of the Pod:
Don't be afraid to write weird quirky books with weird quirky characters, because damn it? Life is weird.
Dog Tip for Life:
Dogs are better than alligators.
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS - READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It's scary and one of

Carrie has been working on the Write Submit Support Class that she's doing with the Writing Barn and the whole class is about creating a writing community and supporting each other, right?
And one of the first classes talks about "Living the Literary Life," which is a phrase that she's honestly not super into because she spends a lot of her time just trying to convince people to live their own life let alone a life with a qualifier in it like 'literary.'
Some people think living the literary life is about relationships. Carrie thinks it's about that, but it's also about intention. It's about giving yourself the space to notice things, people, conversations, poems, beer. It doesn't matter. And then making those connections into story. The literary life is about reading and noticing and writing.
It's about valuing yourself enough to live the life you want to live.
It's about the yearning that exists in you to live a life where you find meaning, and about the yearning that exists in stories where characters yearn, too.
So what does that have to do with boxers or briefs or the p-word, which was the original title of our post until Carrie realized that the p-word stood for words that aren't 'panties,' which was the p-word she was talking about.
Spoiler Tangent:Carrie hates the p-word, the panties one. Honestly, she hates a lot of p-words.
Back to the topic
Our title refers to the fact that there's no one way to live the literary life just like there's no one type of undergarment that is the best for everyone. You life is yours. There's no one way to live it. The phrase 'literary life' is pretty vague, but that's good because you can take that phrase and put your stamp on it, just like your mom used to put your name in your underwear, right?
CHARLES DEBUSSEY SAID THERE IS NO THEORY, JUST TO LISTEN and that's pretty cool if you think about it. Listen to your heart, to what resonates to you. That's how to live your life - literary or not.
Writing Tip of the Pod -
Think about your goals as a writer. What are your intentions? What would make you feel like you're living a literary life? Is it about reading, writing, noticing?
Dog Tip for Life -
There's no one right way to do the simplest thing and that includes pooping.
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Help Us and Do An Awesome Good Deed
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say 'hi,' and we'll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the linkto the mobile app.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
ART.
I do art stuff. You can find it and buy a print here.

So, Shaun and I made a bonus podcast at yesterday's Fourth Annual Bar Harbor Winter Beer Fest.
Yes, you heard that right.
We basically battled ridiculously cold temperatures the day before a giant storm in order to hang out with a bunch of Maine beer drinkers and we made new friends, talked to men in kilts, brewers, and a really cool guy making a film about kids doing really cool things.
Yes, we make less sense as we go on.
Yes, part of the podcast was created in a port-a-potty.
You should listen to it anyway.
Here are links to Thom's amazing project with the students trying to save whales. A newspaper article is here. An Instagram account is here. Thom's film projects Facebook page is here.
Shout Out!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Help Us and Do An Awesome Good Deed
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say 'hi,' and we'll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the linkto the mobile app.
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
ART.
I do art stuff. You can find it and buy a print here.
TIME STOPPERS!
You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
MOE BERG
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
It’s awesome and quirky and fun.

How can we make our organizations and ourselves happy?
We talk about this ALL THE TIME in our house. To be fair we also talk about expelling gas out the rectum and cookie recipes, but happiness gets mentioned a lot.
We like to think of this, which Will Durant wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do.”
Humans are pattern seekers, but sometimes those patterns aren’t helpful ones. We fall into our default patterns; they become like well-used highways, constantly-used routes to our thinking. Our brains are like mechanical devices, wired for efficiency and for those learned patterns.
How many of us get up, make coffee, go out and exercise, come back drink our coffee, go to work via the same road, every day - or some pattern like that. We're wired for efficiency. We've learned the pattern.
But the cool thing about our brains is that we can rewire them.
The currency of the media, social media, blog posts makes it that news is attention. And negative news gets a lot of attention. Threats get attention more than positive stories and inspiration. Or do they?
The more entrenched in our lives and our organizations and our networks that we become, the less we see the need for new patterns.
But we need are inspired evangelists. What we need is growth and change in our lives and in our writing.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Go write somewhere new. Seriously. If you are able-bodied, get up and go write somewhere besides your normal desk or coffee house or library. Switch it up.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Routines are important for dogs, but that doesn't mean that they don't get bored. Let your dog stop to sniff an interesting bush. Let yourself stop to notice an interesting tree. Add in 15 minutes to your schedule to allow yourself some room to discover and roam.
Shout Out
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Warning
Shaun was painting the walls in a super small room right before recording the podcast. You can tell.
Help Us and Do An Awesome Good Deed
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say 'hi,' and we'll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the link to the mobile app.
You can find out more about us at Carrie's website, carriejonesbooks.blog

A recent study by the Authors Guild basically says that if you want to be a writer, prepare to be poor.
In 2017, full-time writers made a median salary of around $20k. That’s full-time writers. In the last ten years, writers’ earnings have decreased by 42 percent.
The article talks about causes and how this impacts authors’ writings and our society. But it doesn’t talk a lot about mental health, about how a lack of pay impacts creativity.
The study’s press release quotes T.J. Stiles as saying, “Poverty is a form of censorship. That’s because creation costs. Writing requires resources, and it imposes opportunity costs. Limiting writing to the financially independent and the sinecured punishes authors based on their lack of wealth and income.”
So all that basically sucks, but still we write. And there are a ton of YOU CAN MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS ON YOUR FIRST BOOK people out there. Those people? They are people who are trying to make their own million dollars – off of you with their vague ‘info-videos’ and ‘seminars’ and downloadable assets that basically tell you to write, read, write more, submit, make a blog site. There we gave the same advice for you right now for free.
This week the Golden Globes were on and there were a bunch of winners, but way more losers. And while we were reading about it, the same lesson kept ringing out at us.
You and the work you do contributes to a bigger purpose.
Your actions make a difference to people.
Your presence, your existence, is important.
You don’t have to be Hollywood to be important. You don’t need a million followers. You don’t need to win a golden globe.You just need to be. Do you. Realize that your work matters and you matter more than the outside metrics of awards and money. You don’t need other people to tell you that you’re a success. You are one by being here.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Be okay with not making a ton of money and having to do some side hustles – of the legal kind. Write the best stories you can, focus on craft, read a ton and you’ll stand out from the rest.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Joy is more important than money but money buys bacon.
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say ‘hi,’ and we’ll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the link to the mobile app.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
TIME STOPPERS!
You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
MOE BERG
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. A

Okay. Okay. I know we always try to be positive because we are positive people. Cough. But New Years? It's a little frustrating.
That's because it's all about goals and new starts. And you know, every day should be about that, right? And then you're like, "Crap, I failed in my goals. Crap, I need new goals. Crap, why is this party boring? Crap, should my new goal to be to never attend a party?"
And so on.
But that pressure? To be Instagram-worthy, to be super achiever goal person, to be extra? That's what makes New Years suck. At this house, we like to just celebrate that we're still alive, not bankrupt, and not in jail. It's way better that way because there's not as much pressure.
A long time ago - back in the 1980s - this guy Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was studying happiness. He gave people pagers. Remember this was in the 1980s. Then he and his research assistants would send the people messages at random times and ask how they were doing, feeling, what they were doing, etc. It sounds a bit like when your mom texts you, honestly.
And he discovered flow. People were happy when they were super engaged in the task they were doing. People weren't happy when they were doing nothing. They were happy when they were involved in something.
Minds were blown.
When people were in the 'flow,' they forgot about time, space, all the other detritus in their lives. They were focused on the now, on what they were doing. What they were doing might be writing, sports, hanging out with other humans, art, and so on... But for them the involvement was so intense that they became engaged and absorbed into it and were happy.
Writing should do that for you.
Help Us?
Hey! Please like and subscribe and even donate to our podcast so we can worry less about money. To check out more writing tips, life tips, or back episodes, check out Carrie's website carriejonesbooks.blog
Happy New Year!
Writing Tip of the Pod
If you aren't in the flow, why are you writing? Give yourself ten minutes. Set a timer. If the writing isn't working, get up and go back later. Life is too short to be unhappy. Make that your new year mantra. Don't spend time outside the flow unless it's necessary.
Dog Tip for Life
Fun and work aren't mutually exclusive. Having fun and being useful aren't either, man. Pull out your inner dog and go with the flow this year. Look for the flow.
Be a Part of the Podcast!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say 'hi,' and we'll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the link to the mobile app.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
TIME STOPPERS!
You can order Carrie's middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart, but mostly it's fun.

So, because Christmas is on the same day as the podcast release and we weren't - cough - super organized, we're sharing with you our day before Christmas.
What? Are there writing tips?
Nah. Not really.
It's just us. Randomly taking voice memos as we go about our days and then splicing that stuff together so you can see what it's like for us on Christmas Eve Day.
Be a Part of the Podcast!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say 'hi,' and we'll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
Here is the link to the mobile app.
Blog Break
It's a big holiday week here and so Carrie is going to be taking a bit of a blog break for the next two weeks. There will be a podcast today and next Tuesday, but other than that? It's a little time for Carrie's brain to recharge and rest. Thank you for understanding! But you can catch up on old blogs here at www.carriejonesbooks.blog
ART.
I do art stuff. You can find it and buy a print here.
TIME STOPPERS!
You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
MOE BERG
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
It’s awesome and quirky and fun.
FLYING AND ENHANCED
Men in Black meet Buffy the Vampire Slayer? You know it. You can buy them hereor anywhere.

Yesterday on her blog, Carrie talked about how feeling successful in your career or life is really tied to having your personal values resonate in your occupation, and being guided by those same core values instead of society’s outside metrics about what makes someone a success.
The blog is here. (carriejonesbooks.blog)
But on the podcast, we’re going to touch on something we’ve talked about before – stakeholders.
Stakeholders are all around you. They’re in your past and your present. They have expectations. They project their own crud onto you. They are the people who come to mind when you say, “What will X think if I do this?” They are real people. But they are also voices in your head.
For Carrie, an example would be when she drew as a little kid and her mom said, “Nobody in our family has an artistic bone in her body.”
That comment from someone she loved stayed inside of her, right? And it made her think she could never do art, but it also could make her go out and say, “To heck with that. I’m going to prove my mom wrong.”
Or maybe your mom’s dream was to save the world, but she never had the chance to. She projects that dream on you and now your dream is to save the world.
Coming to terms with what YOU want versus what your STAKEHOLDERS want is a really valuable experience in helping you feel successful and fulfilled.
HOW TO COME TO TERMS WITH YOUR STAKEHOLDERS:
Make a list.
List all the people who have ever told you what you could do in your career.
List all the people who have ever told you what you couldn’t do.
List all the people who give you advice.
Now, look at your list. Is that person important to you? Then that person is a stakeholder.
But stakeholders aren’t just people. Stakeholders can be colleges, institutions, social media.
Think about when you post something on Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. People like (or don’t), share (or don’t), comment (or don’t) and that gives you value and and ideas and judgements of others all meshed in one place. It becomes a stakeholder.
Our life and our choices are part of intertwined systems and so, too, is our feeling of success. A big first step towards self-fulfillment is realizing when it’s you being happy and satisfied versus other people being happy and satisfied for you.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
If your stakeholder’s influence created a fear or limitation, it’s time to let that go.
And if our idea of success and our career is about playing it safe? About being like the rest of the pack? You might want to rethink that, too.
There is safety in being like everyone else, in thinking like everyone else, in sticking to the pack and following the same route, but is that really helpful? Is that success for you?
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
If you aren’t taking risks with your writer, or taking the risk to be a writer, then maybe it’s time. Ignore the stakeholders that are limiting you. Be who you want to be. Take chances.
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
Maya Angelou
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
OUR PODCAST – DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!

Too often we really focus only on the mechanics of story. Writers and student-writers are told to make perfect sentences, understand the use of the semi-colon, and to spell words correctly.
“Do not turn in a manuscript to an agent or editor unless it’s perfect,” is a pretty big industry standard.
Be perfect.
Write perfectly.
Have perfect grammar.
Have a perfect plot.
Spell everything perfectly.
Here’s the thing: Your story won’t ever be perfect especially if you’re working on it all by yourself. Do the best that you can. Spell all the words. But do not fret about it forever.
So much of our writing life is spent making sure the mechanics of our stories are perfect, that we sometimes forget about the psychological aspects of our stories, the heart.
It happens to us from the very beginning in grade school. Our teachers focus on the paragraphs, the spelling, the grammar because they’re trying to teach us to effectively communicate with the written word, but they sometimes forget to talk about our imagination, our cleverness, how our stories show our deeper selves and feelings.
How many of us worked super hard on a fourth-grade story that we thought was the most amazing story ever only to receive it with a note like, “Good job with your paragraphs!” Or, “Well done with your spelling!”
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Our random thoughts this week both focus on imperfection. Shaun says in the first one, “I’m not exciting today.”
And the second one? Ho boy. Carrie feels super vulnerable about the second one, because it shows her totally tipsy because of her social anxiety and Shaun mixing WAY TOO STRONG a drink.
The point though, is that much like our podcast, our thoughts aren’t canned or perfect. We are real people, not polished, but pretty awesome anyways.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING TIPS:
Don’t forget about the heart of your story, the resonance. Forget about the mechanics for a bit. What is this story actually about? What is its heart?
People like to call it a theme, but that sounds too much like grade school to us. The heart of the story is the big, essential inside part of the story’s hero. Her catalyst. Her life’s question and realization. To find it, ask what your character’s heart wants and needs. To find it, think about the lie about the world (or herself) that your character believes. That’s how you find the heart.
DOG TIPS
Dogs don’t care about mechanics of things. They care about the heart of things. Be a dog.

Shaun: So, Carrie's not the best in the mornings and too much noise, clutter, extra to-do items pretty much throws her completely off her game.
Carrie: One of the reasons that the dogs and I do daily motivating thoughts on my Facebook and Twitter accounts is because it helps ground me and make me feel less cranky and stressed.... Usually. Shaun, however, is a morning person who craves noise and tropical music while I'm a Pachibel's Cannon morning person.
Shaun: True.
Carrie: So, this week's podcast is the first in a series of podcasts about how to make your life and your writing life better and our first tip is....
DOG TIP OF THE CAST: Just say no to the stuff you don't want to do. You don't have to say yes to invitations or the extra responsibilities. You don't have to respond to every single text and/or email. You get to be in charge of these ancillary parts of your life. If you don't want to email/text/talk to someone, there might be a really good reason why. In this life, we have a limited amount of time to expend. Expend it well. Do it on your terms. Dogs get this.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD: Yep. Same point. Write the stories that you want to, that resonate with you. Say no to the stories you think other people want you to write. When you get rid of the baggage, the things you don't want or need to do, you free up your mind of clutter and give it space to create. Listen to the full podcast to hear Shaun's random thought all about marketing - KaPerPi. It's knowledge, awareness, public relations and public image. It's pretty cool.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
For more tips and insight and cool things, check out carriejonesbooks.blog or our webpage Dogs are Smarter Than People.
Thank you so much for liking and subscribing and sharing! You rock.

So, honestly, this podcast is weird. We sound like we're on illegal drugs, but we aren't sure why. Our brains just weren't working. Sadly, Carrie's mouth wasn't either. Who else would call a 'podcast' a 'codcast?'
Anyway, we asked people for topics for our podcast. And people on Carrie’s Facebook were completely helpful.
Jon Hill wanted to know why there weren’t more palomino unicorns.
It’s an important question.
And some other people wanted us to talk about cow hugging. Matt Baya suggested we discuss this trend that started getting some big press in May 2018. Wellness is a 3.7 billion dollar industry that focuses on your spiritual, physical and mental health and wellbeing.
And now - cows can be a part of that.
Cows are warm and cozy and according to one farm in upstate New York, terribly relaxing. They make you feel good.
Listen to the full podcast to understand how Shaun feels about this - if you dare. Because we also talk about Okay Cupid, Friendsgiving, methane, and Rural Legends.
Dog Tip for Life: Dude. Do you. If you’re into paying people to cuddle with cows. Go for it.
Writing Tip of the Cast.Look. Do you research. Cow tipping allegedly is an urban legend. Don’t include urban legends as fact. Fake news. Fake facts? Calling them fake is the nice way of going about it. It’s lies. Writers are better than that.
For more brilliance and silliness, check out Carrie's blog, carriejonesbooks.blog

In this latest episode of "Dogs are Smarter Than People," we talk about how to be a good friend and to write good friendships in your books and stories. Friendship and children's books are a pretty natural combination. Carrie's own books are big on friends even when they are full of romance.
Friends matter. And there are so many beautiful examples of friendships in children's books, but let's go with this Maine classic from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.
Wilbur blushed. “But I’m not terrific, Charlotte. I’m just about average for a pig.”
“You’re terrific as far as I’m concerned,” replied Charlotte, sweetly, “and that’s what counts. You’re my best friend, and Ithink you’re sensational. Now stop arguing and go get some sleep!”
In our life, Carrie is Wilbur and Shaun is Charlotte. Just so you know.
DOG TIPS FOR FRIENDSHIP AND LIFE
1. You do not have to be everyone's friend. Choose wisely. Pick the people who don't bring you down. That's the base for the friendship that you get to build on.
2. Don't pretend to be who you aren't. Don't be Captain Boasts a Lot. Don't Be Mrs. One Up or even Madame Fixes Everyone Else's Problem.
For the rest of the tips, check out carriejonesbooks.blog and search for "DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE." And please like, subscribe, and send us messages via the Anchor app. :)

Carrie and Shaun are still driving through the South and getting a little punchy. Thinking up book ideas like the Towel of Poo and ruminating about whether toothbrush sharing is gross or not. Check out Carrie’s blog at carriejonesbooks.blog and please like and subscribe to the podcast!

Shaun: Two weeks ago we were hanging out at a friend's house and Carrie met a woman who was talking about writing, and how it helped her through some tough times and how she loved writing, but didn't think she could ever be one.
"It's all stream of consciousness," she said as if it was a bad thing.
This of course broke Carrie's heart.
Carrie: To be fair, my heart is easily broken. Like last week, when one of our friends said that Shaun is the best part of the podcast because he's funny and I'm trying to be informative. Heart broken for me. Happy for the Shaun.
Anyway, since I'm informative, stream of consciousness is a term that William James created a little over a century ago and it means
“… it is nothing joined; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ is the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let’s call it the stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life.”
That's taken from Literary Devices Net, which was quoting Mr. James.
Toni Morrison, Jose Saramago, Beckett, Joyce all use stream-of-consciousness as a narrative construct in their stories.
Shaun: Honestly, our entire podcast is pretty much a stream-of-consciousness narrative. Tomorrow on Carrie's regular blog, she'll have some writing tips about using stream of consciousness.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE:
Live in your moment, go with your river of thought.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD:
Don't let anyone ever tell you that your literary constructs or devices or voice isn't cool. You do you.
SHOUT OUT:
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
OUR PODCAST - DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There's a new episode every Tuesday! For more writing tips, check out Carrie's blog at www.carriejonesbooks.blog

All sorts of different things scare different people. We’re breaking from our normal podcast format for Halloween and talking about our scary stories and what makes a story feel scary to us.
Stephen King said,
“I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud. ”
And he also said,
“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm.
The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm.
And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there…”
What scares you? Do you agree with King’s hierarchy of fear?
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Knowing when to hide is an okay life skill.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Go for terror.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.

This past weekend was sort of scary.
Carrie's worst case scenario of presenting happened. She was scheduled to give a four-hour seminar on public image, but when she arrived the place wasn't unlocked, there was no water, but worse- there was no A/V. It was not pretty.
And then...
We went to a party, a SNL-themed party, and because our friends are good at peer pressure and we were dressed as Spartan cheerleaders, we stunted and Carrie had to jump on Shaun's back in a short skirt (with modesty shorts!) and she was so nervous that she actually got sweaty.
So, it turns out that Carrie was totally afraid to do a cheering stunt.
Carrie: This is because I am old and have broken knees.
And Shaun had to face his fear by actually performing the cheer.
Writing (like living) can be full of fear.
Over on The Write Practice, Jeff Elkins tells of "Three Tricks to Overcome Your Fear of Writing."
How does he deal with the fear?
HIS THREE TIPS FOR OVERCOMING THAT FEAR OF WRITING ARE:
He names it.
He leans into it.
Meditates through it.
And he also has this awesome idea for desensitizing yourself from fear, which is our .....
WRITING TIP OF THE POD!
"Take fifteen minutes to write something that scares you. Maybe it’s a scene you’ve been avoiding in your work in progress, maybe it’s a story you’ve been nervous to start, or maybe it’s a letter you’re scared to write. As you work, if fear raises its head, try one of the techniques above to work through it." - Jeff Elkins
DOG TIP FOR LIFE:
Dogs have all kinds of fears just like people do. When dogs have fears, we use treats to encourage them for brave behavior, we don't force them out of their safe places, and we don't shove their fear in their face and shout "GET OVER IT, BUDDY."
Because that's not cool.
We deserve to give ourselves the same respect. Reward yourself for being brave, don't insist on pushing yourself into your fear too hard and too fast.
Don't push yourself, man.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.

A long time ago, our daughter Em was taking karate, which was the only martial art available then in our town.
She was eight years old and tiny.
The instructor was Shaun size – sort of – and bald, super intimidating. He had all the little ones line up and kick rectangular strike pads. Em’s kick was so unexpected and powerful that the adult holding the pad fell over.
Did they tell her, “Good job?”
Nope.
They made her sit down.
“What did I do wrong, Mommy?” Em asked.
“Nothing, buddy. Nothing.”
And a mom next to us whispered, “You were too strong. They don’t know what to do with women who are too strong.”
For the rest of the text that goes with this podcast, check out carriejonesbooks.blog "Dogs Are Smarter Than People."

Trust yourself. Some writing gurus are... Well, there's no once size fits all about writing edicts and adjectives are not the devil.
For the words that go with the podcast, check out: https://carriejonesbooks.blog/dogs-are-smarter-than-people-podcast-stupid-writing-tips-are-stupid/

Dogs are Smarter Than People is the quirky podcast about writing life and dogs and marriage, too.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Remember that kindness, that telling moment of giving or empathy? T. hat makes the characters you write so much more likable. You root for characters who take care out of others.
Search the world and your life for those random moments. Use them in your writing.
Be the flamingo of change. Don't be afraid to be innovative, to be quirky, to be kind. We all tend to resist personal change, remember that when you're writing your characters. For more tips check out - https://carriejonesbooks.blog/dogs-are-smarter-than-people-the-podcast/

Hooking Your Readers by Making Memorable Characters. Plus, horrible panelist types. Plus, Death Grip Eye. It's an awesome episode.
So, when you read a book, and you remember a book, a lot of the time it isn’t the plot that you’re remembering. It’s the character that has held you enthralled.
Plots are super important, but it’s the character that things are happening to that really hold the plot together.
A lot of stories fail because their main character is… Well, he’s boring. She’s a bit blah. There’s nothing about them that stands out.
We remember the people who are larger the life. I know we’ve talked about it before, but it’s so important. Make your characters outrageous. Make them wild. We all love Captain America, but he’s not quite as memorable as The Hulk or Iron Man.

In the latest episode of "Dogs Are Smarter Than People," Carrie talks about Book Release Day, her lack of celebration ability, and explains what Conflicting Wants are and how they are good for story. Shaun disagrees. A lot.

Join an internationally bestselling children's book author (Carrie Jones) and her down-home husband and their dogs as they try to live a happy, better life by being happier, better people . You can use those skills in writing and vice versa. But we’re not perfect, just like our podcast. We’re cool with that.